Too many recipe books?

It’s hard not to find the right fit for anyone who wants to get their hands dirty: every year, dozens of new cooking books appear on the shelves of bookstores, signed by names from here and elsewhere. Questions quickly arise. Would there be too many? Or are they so successful that it seems just right? Let’s cook up these questions with people close to publishing.

First of all, since we’re talking about cooking, let’s talk quantities. If we look beyond the impression given by bookstore displays, what proportion do gastronomy books actually occupy? The Gaspard reports, which annually record sales of Quebec publishing, help to bring a pinch of objectivity.

Aside from the atypical year 2020, where nearly 352,000 copies of this type of work were sold, we note a downward trend: nearly 235,000 cookbooks were sold in 2021, some 280 000 in 2022, followed by a decline in 2023, with 188,568 copies purchased.

The most interesting figures remain those of the market shares they represent for the entire publishing industry, all categories combined. Verdict: recipe books occupy between 2% and 3% of the global landscape.

“Yes, a lot of recipe books are sold, it’s popular, but is that too much to say? It’s up to everyone to determine that. Some titles are a little more popular, but the preconceived idea that one in two books in Quebec is a recipe book is false. If we put it into perspective, it’s a small part, not so important, but often visible and about which we perhaps hear more,” analyzes Patrick Joly, director of BTLF, which collects this sales data.

Respond to the request

On the publishers’ side, we believe, unsurprisingly, that the dose served is the right one. We contacted two publishing houses which occupy a prominent place in the gastronomic niche, publishing between ten and forty books of the genre per year. For them, it is the law of supply and demand that balances the scales.

“The demand is there, the readers are there, and Quebecers are fond of recipe books, especially from here. If this were not the case, we would not publish as much and we would reduce production,” indicates Florence Bisch, publishing director at the Homme group, specifying that unsold copies generally remain limited.

But isn’t there a risk of reinventing the culinary wheel, always rehashing the same recipes? On the contrary, publishers point to the growing diversity of content and presentations. “The themes have broadened, we are offering things very different from what was done 10 or 15 years ago. I don’t have the impression that we are rehashing old recipes, there is really a renewal, a diversity of creators, of content, but also from a graphic point of view”, insists M^me Bisch, illustrating his point with new proposals from authors like Geneviève O’Gleman or Alexandra Diaz.

Its counterpart from Pratico editions abounds. “The challenge is to be able to reinvent yourself and respond to trends, follow them while being avant-garde. We eat 365 days a year, trends evolve, as does the variety of products in the grocery store. There is still room and possibilities,” he says.

Eloquent examples are brandished, such as titles espousing the fashion of the hot air fryer – Pratico opened the ball in this area – or that of fashionable ingredients; a book entirely devoted to tofu, signed Eve-Lyne Auger, will soon be published by Éditions de l’Homme.

Mr. Gatteau also cites the diversity of the public, with a wide range of tastes and levels that must be catered for.

“Each publisher has its audience, with diverse proposals,” adds Florence Bisch.

The relevance in question

The question would therefore be quickly resolved… if it were not double-edged. Because Jessie Lassonde, owner of the Librairie Gourmande at the Jean-Talon market, doesn’t go there with the back of the spoon.

Without necessarily targeting specific authors or publishers, she also deplores the ways of doing things of certain big names in the industry who have become sausage machines. “It’s done on an assembly line, basically, in a commercial way, reread quickly and often incomplete,” she judges, brandishing the example of her partner who followed a recipe for chicken with vegetables in which the addition of broth, essential for cooking, had been omitted. “Without wanting to put everyone in the same basket, certain personalities are not really their place. »

As for the renewal of the offer, M^me Lassonde is much less enthusiastic, noting a certain redundancy. “To still see “My mother’s spaghetti bolognese” is enough. We’re not here anymore. »

This overabundance, in his eyes, of recipe books leads “always the same stars” to overshadow authors who deserve a better spotlight. She thus cites the little-known Wang sisters, who signed Asian vegetables, with an invigorating and multifaceted approach combining recipes, stories and a gardening guide, placed in a Quebec context. “They are not known, but have done something wow, which deserves to be consumed and cooked more than other things on the market,” underlines M^me Lassonde.

“Do we really need to have a new cookbook coming out every three months? It takes away relevance, and I find it a shame because in Quebec, we are starting to understand our culture, our local ingredients,” she concludes.